Girls are being encouraged to join this year’s golf team
Mary Humphreys
Webmaster
Spring sports are starting up at American High again, and among the many sports coming back, one of them is the golf team. Flyers were put up advertising the informational meeting, which took place on January 28, 2014, and promptly explaining that girls were now allowed to join the boys team.
The golf team is in its third year and, unlike most sports teams, there is not a boys and girls team, but rather one team with both genders.
“Somewhere in the past they had a girl’s golf team and a guy’s golf team and apparently there weren’t enough girls to make a girls team, so we checked with the athletics director, since there is no girls team, that the girls could join the boys golf team,” assistant coach, Mr. Holcomb, said.
In 2012, the team was was a mix of both boys and girls on the team. However, last year no girls signed up.
“I don’t know if it was that they didn’t have an interest , maybe they just know about it, maybe we didn’t advertise well enough last year for it and maybe they didn’t know that they could be on the guys team,” Holcomb said.
Even some of the girls that had been on the team in 2012 team decided not to join.
“Girls were allowed to play last year but I didn’t join junior year because I got involved with ASB, so I didn’t want that to interfere with golf,” senior, Dana Acoba, said.
No matter what the girl’s reasons for not joining were, it is still a new year and a new season to consider being a part of.
“It’s definitely a very friendly environment, you can just go there and have fun while competing against other schools,” sophomore Eric Hsu said. “We’re actually able to meet new friends from other schools, so that’s exciting.”
It is also possible that if there is more interest from girl’s this year, that the new head coach, Mr. Holtebeck, would start an all girls team.
“Coach Holtebeck mentioned that he’s possibly interested in actually coaching both teams, the boys and the girls.” Holcomb said. “So we possibly will have a girls team next fall if we can get enough girls interested in signing up.”
There does seem to be more interest among girls this year and will hopefully have a mix gendered team for 2014, like in 2012.
“Be ready for how much time it takes and be open for new things, because you will be surrounded by boys and it can be really nerve wracking so just don’t get distracted as easily as I did,” Acoba said.
The first practice is on February 10, 2014, and anyone interested in joining can speak to Mr. Holcomb for more information.
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